Gibson Guitars is hosting a masterclass with legendary rock photographer Neal Preston as part of the ‘Gibson Through The Lens’ exhibition at London’s British Music Experience on Janaury 29th. Neal enjoyed major access during Led Zeppelin’s 1975 and 1977 US tours. The masterclass will run 4PM to 6PM and entry is free. During the session Neal will talk about his experiences shooting the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, Bruce Springsteen and Marc Bolan.

To gain entry to the masterclass, all you have to do is email events@britishmusicexperience.com with your name, address and the number of tickets you require (maximum of two per request).

The Gibson Through The Lens exhibition features over sixty images from some of the world’s most respected music photographer’s, including Ross Halfin, Neal Preston, Baron Wolman and Mick Rock.
Among the portraits displayed in the exhibition are images of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Angus Young, Chuck Berry, Pete Townshend, Slash and Jack White.

More details at http://www.britishmusicexperience.com/neal-preston/

Neal Preston also has an exhibition of his work Gods And Rockers showing from Janaury 28th to March 3rd at the Snap Gallery in London’s Piccadilly Arcade see

http://www.snapgalleries.com/exhibitions/neal-preston-gods-and-rockers/

Here’s a review of the launch night by former Melody Maker/Zep scribe and Omnibus Press editor in chief Chris Charlesworth:

Noted Led Zep photographer Neal Preston unveiled a major exhibition of his photographs at the SNAP Gallery in London’s Piccadilly Arcade on January 26 and, of course, Led Zeppelin were well represented. It was a pleasure to see some of Neal’s iconic photos –Robert with the dove, Jimmy’s passport photo and looking ghostly in his white suits, the whole band caught in mid-song from Neal’s vantage point in the pit – framed as magnificent works on art, very large and, naturally, very expensive. All the shots can be seen in Neal’s terrific book that was republished recently by Omnibus but new to this exhibition was a gigantic black and white print that was actually a montage from Neal’s contact sheets, slightly faked in that Neal obviously cut and pasted different pictures into the overall structure but very impressive nonetheless. It costs £3,500 if any TBL readers have won the lottery recently. The exhibition wasn’t limited to Zep. Also on show are Neal’s pictures of Queen, Dylan, Pink Floyd, Springsteen (including Neal’s famous Wembley panorama), the travelling Wilburys (all with beautiful Gretsch guitars) and his onetime squeeze Stevie Nicks. There’s also a very funny picture of Frank Sinatra goosing Dean Martin on stage during a 1988 Rat Pack performance in Las Vegas.

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Whitesnake drummer Brian Tichy has a John Bonham masterclass running on the Music radar web site this week –have a look at
http://www.musicradar.com/rhythm/video-brian-tichys-john-bonham-week-525952

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Robert Plant and the Band of Joy have received two Awards at the 27th TEC Awards.:

Outstanding Creative Achievement:
Record Production/Single or Track
“Angel Dance”, Robert Plant

Remote Production/Recording or Broadcast
Robert Plant and the Band of Joy,
Live in Concert, NPR Music

Founded in 1990, the TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio is a 501(c) (3) public benefit corporation, dedicated to recognizing and furthering excellence in audio, video, music and other communications media arts. The Foundation’s signature program is the Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, honoring outstanding achievement in audio technology and production. The Foundation endows scholarship programs for the audio arts and sciences at leading universities and presents its own TEC Scholarship to deserving students. http://tecfoundation.com

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How The Brits Rocked America – Go West is a new three part series commencing on BBC4 this Friday January 27th at 9pm. The series chronicles the success of British acts in the US over the past 50 years commencing with The Beatles breakthrough in 1964. Led Zeppelin’s success will also be covered and there are new interview clips with Jimmy Page and Paul McCartney and many others.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b4x9g

Get well soon Mark: 

Well know long term Zep fan Mark Harrison is in Milton Keynes hospital after a bad fall and unfortunately has broken his knee. I am sure you join me in wishing him a speedy recovery (DL)